Opera as Politics (original) (raw)
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Some of the earliest connections between the citizens of Sydney and their opera house were made through the flood of letters to the editors of Sydney’s daily newspapers in the days following the announcement of Jørn Utzon’s winning design for one of the most sought-after architectural prizes of the decade. This research unpacks the connections between people and newspapers and looks at how the unconventional modernist design proposed for Bennelong Point variously, set Sydney apart or made it the butt of jokes, promoted modernity or absurdity, represented a canny political move or presented as a foolhardy folly. These letters, by ordinary Australians to mass media publications, provide an early biography of the structure that is now a globally recognised symbol for Sydney.
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In 1891, Kearney, Nebraska, a town of a little under 10,000 people, celebrated the opening of its brand new opera house. Seating 1,200 people-over ten percent of the local population-the opera house was hailed by the local newspaper as 'Kearney's wealth and Kearney's work; Kearney's beauty and Kearney's manhood' (13): the ultimate testament to the town's modernity and prosperity. As Ann Satterthwaite's book reveals, Kearney, Nebraska was just one of thousands of American towns that built and sustained an opera house in the late nineteenth century. It joined the ranks of other such unlikely locations as Red Cloud, Nebraska (population in 1888: 796) and Vergennes, Vermont (1890 population: 1,773), not to mention the aspirationally named Paris, Kentucky (population: 4,218 in 1890). Satterthwaite's book therefore serves as a fascinating survey of the hitherto under-explored history of these small-town theatrical institutions and their relationship to wider developments in America-social, cultural and economic-in the final years of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth. The first of the book's four interlocking sections-'A Heady Time: Thousands of Opera Houses'-sets up the context for this proliferation of opera houses in the decades after the Civil War. She outlines early American theatrical history in terms of the division between the Puritan north and the less theatrically resistant south, and also draws vital connections between the growth of rail networks and the building of new opera houses, revealing the role that technological and infrastructural developments played in the cultural growth of small-town America. If a town was well-connected on the railway, performers and patrons would come; but equally she suggests that businessmen and civically minded individuals would fund an opera house with the specific aim of attracting the railway companies to build a branch line to their town. In addition, these new houses became the focus for multifarious civic functions, providing a key location for municipal meetings and positioning them at the centre of social life.
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For an architect to have the opportunity to realise their dreams, particularly with regards a public project of the stature of the Sydney Opera House, there always needs to be a political vision, initiative and willingness to do drive the project forward. Today it would be difficult to imagine Sydney, without the iconic building that so defines its identity, projecting out into the harbour so dramatically on the promontory of Bennelong Point. Prior though to the building of the Opera House, this remarkable location was merely the location of Sydney’s tram depot; a strangely castellated building that attempted to pay homage to the fortification originally built there by Governor Macquarie in 1820, designed by the convict architect Francis Greenway. Even with the opening of the famous Harbour Bridge in 1932, that came to redefine the character of the harbour, the prominent nearby headland of Bennelong Point, was not the only potential site for a proposed Opera House. The idea itself o...
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On December 7, 1968 a group of students protesting against social inequality gathered in front of Italy’s most prominent opera house, Teatro alla Scala. During the protest, eggs and vegetables were thrown at the wealthy concert attendees that convened there for the opening night of the season. That incident, nowadays referred to as a symbol of the tide of social and political tensions that troubled Italian history for a whole decade, made La Scala — and, therefore, the music it featured — a place par excellence of social privilege. In reaction to this turbulent social context, superintendents Antonio Ghiringhelli (1948-1972) and Paolo Grassi (1972-1977) promoted new strategies in order to open the opera house to the working class and legitimise La Scala’s existence as a publicly funded cultural institution. To reach these goals, the theatre gradually reinforced its relationships with the labour unions and organized reduced-price performances specifically dedicated to the lower socio-economic class. Drawing on interviews, archival resources and newspaper accounts, my paper investi-gates the cultural policy adopted by La Scala in the Seventies and aims to evaluate the role that this distinguished theatre played in fostering a democratization of opera music in late 20th Century Italy.
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Hopscotch: An Opera for 24 Cars was a celebrated site-based and technetronic musical performance that sought to bring opera into various communities in Los Angeles, many of which were economically disadvantaged. In the process, this opera set off a firestorm of protests that ultimately resulted in confrontations with community members, protests that would test the very premise of the dissemination of opera and performance outside spaces of privilege and in communities of colour. Informed by the concept of transit-oriented performance, this article analyses some ways in which neoliberalism is distorting opera's modern-day resonances.
Evaluating the Success of the Pueblo Opera House
The architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan had an immense influence on modern construction in the American west. My research concerns the Pueblo Opera House built in 1890, an overlooked gem in this Chicago firm’s portfolio. In the nineteenth-century, the immigrants and cultural conservatives living in the frontier west saw formal architecture as the visual requirement of civility. Opera houses were the tangible pinnacle of civilized design and high culture and as such, an opera house became the major desire of Pueblo’s cultured elite. The esteemed Chicago firm of Adler and Sullivan was commissioned to contrive a visual solution to Pueblo’s developing urban landscape. The Pueblo Opera House became one of Adler and Sullivan’s highest paying commissions. Following its construction alongside the venerated Auditorium and the Milwaukee Stadt Theater, the Pueblo Opera House became a major source of Pueblo’s regional cultural fame. Although this opera house has been brushed aside and all but forgotten, even by the firm who designed it, this American treasure deserves its place in history.
Interpretive Activism and the Political Uses of Verdi's Operas in the 1840s
American sociological review, 2002
The concept of interpretive activism as a relational position and a practical accomplishment is a useful analytical toolfor the study of audiences conceived not as a conglomerate of individuals but as loose networks in which the ability to construct and impose political meanings is unequally distributed. An analysis of the political uses of Verdi's operas in the 1840s demonstrates the power of interpretive activists to impose on audience co-members a political interpretation of cultural objects. There is significant variation in the ways in which these operas were used for the construction of expressive collective statements by contemporary audiences. Opera performances were interpreted as symbolic representations of different political idioms, and audiences expressed their political stance by both affiliating with, and disaffiliating from, these performances. The practices of interpretive activists, not the patriotic symbolism inherent in the operas, account for this variation in outcome. Symbolism, along with the formal properties of opera and the normative en-